by Kirby Lindsay, posted 11 April 2012
Starting April 19th, Stone Soup Theatre presents the annual Double (XX) Fest – a celebration of theatre created by women. The first week offers daily showcases – a Night Of Cabaret (Apr 19th,) Night of Spoken Word (Apr 20th,) and Night of Solo Performances (Apr 21st) – with each one featuring several talented artists. The 24-hour All-Female Play Fest, a repeat of the popular yet grueling effort attempted last year, will start on Saturday, April 21st, with the performance on Sunday, Apr 22nd, which also features a directing workshop taught by Kristina Sutherland and a playwriting workshop taught by Emily Conbere – both open to students of either gender.
A Diverse Collection Of Live Theatre
The final two weeks of the Double (XX) Fest (April 26 – May 6th) offers a carefully reviewed selection of eighteen diverse short plays – nine each week – written and directed by women. These eighteen plays represent the very best of 321 entries submitted for consideration to Stone Soup Theatre in 2011, now directed and performed for audiences who welcome a chance to see creative, original short works.
The Fest deliberately recalls for theater goers the Seattle Fringe Festival or the Mae West Fest, both of which on current extended hiatuses. To spend a night out experiencing plays written with a spectrum of voices and subjects, the Double (XX) delivers the complete package. Better still, it does so without audiences having to hunt out a series of hidden venues – instead everything can be found in one (or two, or more) nights at The DownStage, Stone Soup’s intimate theatre on Stone Way.
A Carefully Culled Collection
Better still, the 18 plays presented have been reviewed, and reviewed again. Not just anyone can present a work at the Double (XX,) (disclosure: this author submitted a work for the 2012 Double (XX) and did not get selected.)
Since June 2011, Stone Soup staff have solicited submissions from women writers, around the neighborhood, the theater community and through general on-line appeals. Submissions were accepted electronically, which allowed local, national and international writers to take part. By the deadline, in December 2011, Stone Soup had received a total of 321 submissions.
A crew of 14 volunteer readers read through every one of those plays, blind. The readers were given plays to read without information as to the identity – or any details – of the playwright. One volunteer read three plays total, while others read 77 – 100 plays between October and January. (Second disclosure: this author also volunteered as a reader, and she’d do it again…)
Submissions came in slowly, at first, up ‘til the last day when 60 to 70 came in all at once. Part of the flood of submissions might be because Stone Soup management has continued to resist the temptation to charge writers a submission fee – a common practice in the industry that often sets a real obstacle in front of new writers.
A Collection Of Double-Yeses At The Double (XX)
Readers gave plays they read a yes, no or maybe, and filled out a short critique form to describe the play and explain the decision. Plays that received one yes were always read again, and those that received a maybe were evaluated. Carolynne Wilcox and two assistants, intern Katie Haster and volunteer extraordinaire Catherine Smith, had to decide whether to give each maybe another chance. As the volume of submissions increased, the chances of a maybe being read again lessened.
Works that had received two yes-es were assembled into a batch of 67 plays. At this point the blinders came off, and Wilcox, Smith and Haster evaluated them based on criteria about the playwrights (with locals – or local connections – given preference,) the subjects (each night of the Fest contains a diversity of topics and genres,) and which ones the volunteer directors wanted to direct.
The directors – which include Smith and Haster (Wilcox will perform in three of the works) – were given the chance to choose among the 67 the plays they wanted to direct. This further broadened the spectrum of the plays produced, on topics including the TSA, suicide, white liberal guilt, romance, the applications of GPS, cats, God, and the Occupy Movement. They also span the serious, magical, realistic, comic, and dark. The nine plays each week, all written by women, offer nearly anything that can be performed on a small stage, and produced on an extremely limited budget.
Come See, And/Or Contribute
For this year, Wilcox established a Kickstarter campaign, to try to raise money for the Double (XX) Fest – beyond ticket revenue. The money raised could pay some of the volunteers (many have gone far above and beyond) a little something, and provide each production (all 18) a very small budget to cover some production costs, or to split among the actors.
A donation to the Stone Soup Kickstarter campaign will help live theater in Fremont – almost as much as attending the Double (XX) Fest, even for just one show.
Experience the diversity that theater can offer, and purchase tickets either in advance, at Brown Paper Tickets, or at the door, for this too rare opportunity.
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©2012 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.